Maguire and Ding get Masters wild cards

UK champion Stephen Maguire and Chinese ace Ding Junhui have been awarded wild cards for the Masters at Wembley a few days after the Malta Cup at the Hilton Hotel between January 13 and February 6.

Maguire will play fellow Scot Graeme Dott in the opening round of snooker's most prestigious invitation event on February 13.

Ding faces an all-Asian tie against Hong Kong's Marco Fu on February 14.

Glasgow's 23-year-old Maguire has made vast strides to the top of the sport within the last nine months. He won the European Open in Malta in March, his first major title, and has made a tremendous start to the current season.

After reaching the final of the British Open, losing to John Higgins, he went one better at the UK Championship in York, beating David Gray 10-1 in the final.

Maguire has beaten Ronnie O'Sullivan twice this season, prompting the latter to suggest that he could "rule the game for the next ten years." This will be Maguire's first appearance at the Masters.

Ding made his Wembley debut last year and hit the headlines by knocking out Joe Perry. He took a 5-2 lead over Stephen Lee in the next round, only to lose 6-5.

The 17-year-old from Shanghai is one of snooker's most gifted teenagers and is leading a new wave of players to emerge from the Far East. Ding, a former world U-21 champion, reached the last 16 of the British Open last month, beating the likes of Tony Drago who slipped to no.34 in the provisional rankings after starting the season at no.22.

The Masters runs from February 13 to 20.

Paul Hunter will be defending his title and will battle for the trophy against the likes of O'Sullivan, Higgins, Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams, Matthew Stevens, Steve Davis and People's Champion Jimmy White.

The next ranking tournament before the Malta Cup is the Welsh Open which starts on January 7.

Comments are submitted under the express understanding and condition that the editor may, and is authorised to,
disclose any/all of the above personal information to any person or entity requesting the information for the
purposes of legal action on grounds that such person or entity is aggrieved by any comment so submitted.

At this time your comment will not be displayed immediately upon posting. Please allow some time for your comment to
be moderated before it is displayed.

Popup

Email article

Your Email:

Recipient email:

Message:

Times of Malta Premium

This article is part of our premium content.You have exceeded your 10 free articles for this month.
A subscription is required to access Times of Malta content from overseas.
Register to get 10 free articles per month.

Subscribe to gain access to our premium content and services. Your subscription will also enable you to
view all of the week's e-paper editions (both Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta), view exclusive
content, have full access to our newspaper archive to download editions from 1930 to today, and access the
website in full from overseas. All of this will also be available to you from our tablet and mobile apps.